Adjusting trigger pull on percussion lock

[toddpotiphar]

I'm putting together a percussion kit and need to adjust the trigger pull. It's so heavy I can't even get it to release the hammer by pulling the trigger. I'm sure there are plenty of threads on how to do so, but I can't seem to come up with the correct search terms. Can someone please point me the right direction.

 

[Artificer]

Does the lock have a tumbler in the fly and are you dealing with set triggers or is it a single trigger gun?

Gus

 

[toddpotiphar]

Single trigger; no fly that I can find. I've messed with it a little and figured it out. The hardest part was figuring out that I needed a punch to separate the hammer from the tumbler. After a little filing, it pulls nicely. It's a whole lot better than my "modern" .303 British, anyway.

 

[Artificer]

Use the following link and scroll down to my Post#1584526 and follow on posts describing how to adjust the trigger pull on a gun like yours.
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/...tid/301235/fromsearch/1/hl/trigger|pull/tp/1/

I hope you find it useful.

Gus

 

[toddpotiphar]

After some Google work last night, I managed to find the article that the post links to. The only filing I ended up doing was to reduce the angle on the full-cock notch to 90 degrees. It had been factory-cut past 90, which was why I couldn't release the tumbler with trigger pressure.

The gun is from a fairly old (1970s) production kit that I bought from a friend for $75. It's a good way for me to mess with things and figure some stuff out without worrying about wrecking something with some real value.

 

[Vaino]

What you eccountered w/ a tumbler notch that's not at 90 degrees to the sear nose is that you're pulling against the mainspring...hence the heavy pull. A tipoff of this happening is that the hammer will move backwards.

This done intentionally by the manufacturer for liability reasons.....they don't want the trigger to "go off" inadvertently.....Fred

 

[Artificer]

After some Google work last night, I managed to find the article that the post links to.

Please understand I do not mean in any way to ridicule you, but rather to explain something. In the post I mentioned, there was the following information:

I have used the following link before to describe how to reduce trigger pull in a gun that does not have a fly in the tumbler and no set triggers. http://www.nwtskirmisher.com/useful-locks.shtml

You don't need to find a link when it is put in a post like this where it is in blue color and underlined. All you have to do is left click on the link provided - somewhere along the underlined link and it will automatically open in the new link. Hope I explained that well enough and that it helps you in the future.

Gus

 

[crockett]

On a lot of less expensive muzzle loaders the trigger is pinned to little bumps on the trigger plate. This creates a poor geometry resulting in a heavy trigger pull. If you look in TOW, etc. you can find trigger plates with much higher posts that make for a lighter trigger pull. The very best answer is to pin the trigger to the stock. This position is so high that the pin is hidden from view in the lock mortise area. On the opposite side the pin is often covered by a side plate.
On a few locks the spring for the sear is unnecessarily strong and that could be filed down some. There is also friction from poor machining that makes for a poor trigger.
The engagement of the sear nose in its notch may be overdone as a safety concern. A shim there might help.

 

[Tinker2]

Welcome to the forum





William Alexander

 

[toddpotiphar]

Thanks all for the helpful information.

Gus, what i mean is that I found that article before you posted the link to it.

 

[Artificer]

OK, sorry I misunderstood.

You will be further able to reduce the trigger pull by either soft soldering or perhaps gluing a shim to reduce the sear contact surface. I only say "perhaps" because I have never used the "Black Max" glue the author suggested, so I don't know how long it will hold up in usage.

OH, PLEASE don't consider filing down the full cock and half cock notch as was also suggested by that article. I can almost guarantee it will become a mess that would require a new tumbler.

Gus

 

[Artificer]

One more thing I recommend against what the author of that article proposed and that is about grinding/filing metal off the sear spring. Original U.S. "Civil War" period musket locks had very strong sear springs that some people do grind down a bit, but I never did.

However, reproduction of those springs are almost never nearly as strong as the originals and when most folks tried to grind/file them down, they wound up with not enough tension and the springs had to be replaced.

Not sure if there is a V spring or Coil spring for the sear spring on your lock, but I really don't recommend taking metal off it unless a person 1. Really knows what he/she is doing and 2. Has a spare sear spring if things go wrong.

Gus

 

[fleener]

I would not use glue for putting a piece of brass on there as a shim.

most likely the glue will fail someday and I would not want it to fail if I was shooting an important match or the biggest buck of my life.

Fleener

 

[Artificer]

I agree, even though I've been working with some extremely strong epoxy glues that took/take a great deal of both pounding recoil and heat, for over 40 years now.


Gus

 

[fleener]

At the World Long Range matches in 2009 I was pair firing with a Frenchman. I think it was in the 600 yard relay and he was sitting on his shooting pad with his lock out of the rifle and he was doing somthing to it. He got it put back on and finished the match.

I dont know what his issues were. He did not speak english and I dont speak French. But I have always wondered what he was doing, and I did feel sorry for him.

Most likley he was trying to get the brass shim out of the lock mechanisium that he glued on :grin:

Fleener

 

[Artificer]

Most likley he was trying to get the brass shim out of the lock mechanisium that he glued on :grin:

Fleener

:rotf:

Seriously though, he may have been trying to clean the crud out of his lock that was upsetting his normal trigger pull or keeping something else from working correctly. It could also have been he thought something was wrong and it wasn't. Who knows?

One time during an important Long Range match, I had a shooter come up and told me the problems he was having was almost assuredly his own fault, but could I check his rifle just in case? I did and there was nothing wrong, but instead of giving him a confidence boost, it caused more despair.

OK, so if you can't fix the rifle, then you have to fix the shooter. So I locked the rifle in a padded vise and pulled out a large rawhide mallet. I then did a poor imitation of a Medicine Man chant and hit the bench all around the rifle, but not actually touching the rifle. Punches, tools and a pair of pliers went flying while the look of Horror on the Shooter's face was amazing. I then handed him the rifle and told him to go shoot many X's. He stared at me and in an surprisingly timid way, he asked," What was wrong with the rifle?" I told him there was a Demon in it I had to exorcise, but now it was fine. He must have turned around three times to look at me while he went back to the yard line to shoot.

He then shot even a bit better than his normal practice score and even his coach was impressed. OK, so he came back to me and asked what I had done. I told him he was talking himself out of shooting the best score he could, so I got his mind off that and on "that CRAZY Armourer." He said, yeah, he kept thinking about what I had done for the entire round he shot.

He then smiled and asked if I could exorcise the rifle again and I told him, "No, the next thing I exorcise will be the shooter." We both laughed and he went back to shooting the scores of which he was capable.

Gus